16 and Shinobi
by bigdogneversleeps
Summary: So, the idea of twelve year old ninjas seem kind of ridiculous, right? I mean, only a few people are really ready to be shinobi at that age. Hiruzen Sarutobi and Minato Namikaze realized this after the Third War, and decided to universally fix that with the standard age limit of 16. However, this change has many effects on the later Naruto world. What are they? Read and find out.


Naruto scanned the dimly lit Konoha for any shadowy figures jumping from rooftop to rooftop, possibly on patrol but saw no one. Satisfied he wouldn't be caught he decided to begin the prank. He had tried this same stunt a few years ago, but it had chaotic and poorly planned overall. This one, though, this one would be legendary.. Stretching his (annoyingly) short frame, he opened up the scroll that he was carrying around in his pocket and quickly unsealed one of the cans of paint, making sure in the miniscule light that it was midnight black, and then unsealed one of the large paintbrushes. Pocketing the scroll again, he opened the can of paint and dipped the brush in. Channeling chakra to his feet so he would stick to the monument, he began to paont

…

A May sunrise, on a sunny day, is a beautiful sight in Konoha. It was days like this that got people to look out, and at the wonders of the world. One of these people was the legendary shinobi, the Green Beast of Konoha, Maito Gai, and his young student Rock Lee.

They were performing one of their legendary (and greatly feared) training sessions, in which they had to circle Konoha proper 10 times on one foot. It had been dark when they began their footrace, but it took long enough for the sun to break the horizon. As they felt the sun hit their faces, Gai could not help but yell out in his loud voice, "The sun is warming us up, Lee! It is helping us burn our power of youths! Let's not disappoint it!" With that declaration, he hopped into high gear, leaving Lee in the dust.

Lee simply grinned at the prospect as he picked up speed. "Hai, Gai-sensei! Let the power of youth explode!" However, he was not looking where he was going, instead focusing on where Gai was, so he failed to see the rather large rock in his path. An improperly timed hop later, Lee crashed onto the ground, tripped by the offending stone. He yelped as he unexpectedly hit the ground, landing face first. He sighed, unhappy with how he had managed to fall. Speaking into the dirt, he proclaimed, "If I cannot catch up to Gai-sensei now, I will do 200 one handed push-ups with Tenten-san on my back!" With that, he rolled to his side and picked himself up. He brushed off the dirt on his jumpsuit, and just happened to look up at the Hokage Monument. He yelled out loud in surprise, catching the attention of Gai-sensei, who had been wondering where his youthful student had been. Rushing back to the scene, fearing the worst, he simply saw a slack-jawed Lee staring out into space. When he followed the direction of his eyes, he saw he was gazing at the Hokage Monument. And its new…changes.

The Shodai Hokage's changes were ones that were near and dear to Lee's and Gai's hearts, as he was given thick bush black eyebrows and a black bowlcut painted over his hair. Flames surrounding his eyes were a nice touch, as they saw that however did such a prank understood the power of youth.

The Nidaime's face was nothing of the sort, however. The eyes had been given ridiculous eyelashes, and it wore blue cheeks. Sloppily put-on red paint around the lips, and a long green streak painted around the neck portion helped Gai see what unyouthful depiction of the second Hokage was being exhibited. Along with his hair colored pink, it dared to say that the Nidaime was a drag queen. Most unyouthful indeed.

The Sandaime was shown with little changes, except for red cheeks and red coming from his nose. Gai was not sure what it meant, until he saw the orange square painted beneath it. He shook his head at the audacity of this graffiti artist, who dared to say that the honorable Hokage-sama was a reader of such unyouthful literature like his eternal rival, Kakashi.

Finally, he looked at the Yondaime's face, seemingly only painted with the proper hair color and eye color. Then he noticed the writing on the cheeks. On the left was the symbol #, and on the right was the number 2. Gai presumed it meant he was the number 2 of something, but what?

He looked to the right of the Yondaime for some reason, and was surprised to see paint there. It was a basic picture of a face, but one could see that this face had spiky yellow hair, blue eyes, black whisker marks on his cheeks, and a tongue sticking out. Gai realized then what had happened. The Orange Prankster had struck yet again, with his most visible prank yet, sullying the Hokage monument and putting his face next to theirs. He shook his head, and contemplated what to do. Should he alert the Hokage, since he noticed it so early? But he doubted that no else had realized it, maybe even the Hokage himself had already seen it. Or should he try and apprehend the culprit who would do such a thing? He knew where his home was, he had chased him there a year before when he managed to dye his jumpsuits orange. It would be fairly easy to apprehend him. But if he was on the run, Gai didn't want to get into a chase after him. Not because he couldn't catch him, but because of the almost certainty he would be embarrassed if he tried. He turned to his student, still studying the graffiti, and called out to him. "Lee!"

Lee jumped and turned towards him. "Hai, Gai-sensei?"

Gai looked at him. "Lee, I am giving you an option for this morning's training. We can continue our run, or we could go and catch the perpetrator of the devious crime of defiling the Hokage monument."

Lee was surprised at the ability to choose. "But Gai-sensei, no doubt the perpetrator has vanished, and I lack the tracking abilities that could help in such an instance."

Gai nodded. "True, I have not been as good of a sensei as I should have been when it comes to your tracking ability; we can rectify it with this exercise. I already know who did this crime, it is simply a matter of catching him…" Gai looked back at the added face to the monument.

"Who is that, Gai-sensei?" Lee was curious on whom he would have to find.

Gai turned to him. "One of the most youthful and unyouthful people I have ever met, the Orange Prankster, Naruto Uzumaki!"

…

It was quiet. Too quiet in Naruto's opinion.

He was hiding in a dumpster not far from the Academy, with a change of clothes in a bag. He didn't want to take his Genin Exam smelling like a pile of trash.

He was careful to listen for any buzzing, or dog barking, as those were his main two fears. He knew from his buddy Kiba, and from the class quiet man Shino, that those dogs or bugs could belong to ninja, and give away his position in a heartbeat.

However, over both of those, he was worried about a Hyuga getting on his trail. There was no way that he could hide from a Hyuga. He had wondered why, until it was explained to him by Hinata in class. Hyuga's could see chakra, and he could only suppress his chakra so much. A sensor might ignore, but a Hyuga would see it and go in for the metaphorical kill. Though after the stunt he pulled, he might have to be worried about his neck.

He crouched there quietly, listening for any sign of anyone who could capture him. This dumpster was fairly filled, the main reason why Naruto chose it. It could hide his scent, and who would think to check in a full dumpster for him? He took a quick glance at the watch he wore, and saw it said 6:39am. He had to wait another 81 minutes to make his break for the Academy gates, and avoid any angry shinobi. So, to try and fill some of that time, he began to go over mentally the Genin Exam he would have to perform today. First part was the written exam, which, if he remembered what Iruka-sensei said correctly, was half-academic and half-ninja based. He had studied kind of for that part, when he wasn't setting up the plans for his prank, so he could slip by with a passing grade.

The second portion was a weapons exam. It was fairly basic, the main portion of that test was a demonstration with your throwing ability with kunai and shuriken. There was also a part where you had to practice hand to hand combat with kunai and defending yourself against a swordsman, but that was only worth a quarter of your grade on that part. He wouldn't have any problems with that, except for defending himself against a sword, be he wasn't too worried about that.

The next portion would be the taijutsu demonstration, where you had to spar against an opponent of a similar skill level to you, determined by your past performances. He wished he could have gotten to fight Sasuke-teme, but he knew that Iruka wouldn't do that. As much as Naruto hated to admit it, in the eight years they had been going to the academy together, they had sparred an upwards of fifty times. Naruto won once, a few years back. He was in the top half of the class easily, but not at his level. For now.

Then, there was the jutsu ability section of the exam, which was the make or break part of the exam. You had to show proficiency in chakra control exercises, mainly water walking, an ability to identify and break a genjutsu, the basic three jutsu's all shinobi should know, and three other jutsu's that you could perform. Water walking wasn't going to be a problem; a trip to the hot springs had gotten him to learn it in the span of a day. With all the special lessons Iruka gave him with genjutsu, it would disappointing if he didn't at least identify it, and he might be able to break it. Two of the basic three were no problems, but bunshin was hit or miss. It really frustrated him he could not get it to work on a consistent basis, but he simply had to hope it would this time. The other three jutsus… he had those in the bag. That perverted secret sensei he had helped him with that. All in all, he could pass. Would he? That was a question he would find the answer to in, Naruto looked at the watch, 75 minutes. He could wait.

…

Hinata Hyuga's first instinct when she saw the Hokage's monument was to laugh. Can you blame her? She thought it was the funniest thing in the world, but her father would have reprimanded her harshly had she done such a thing, so she forced herself to do her stretches before her big day in silence.

She took that quiet time to think about the boy she really really liked, maybe even loved, Naruto Uzumaki. He was a goofball, a prankster, had few manners, and could become irritating. However, she saw his determination, his loyalty, his indomitable spirit, his joyful personality and beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes and she blushed a deep crimson. She knew he really liked the swordsgirl refugee Kushina in their class, but she couldn't help herself. For the longest time he liked Sakura Haruno, the pink haired genius in their class, but an incident involving an explosive tag, lard, feathers, a stack of tax returns, two drunken guards, an empty cup of ramen, 20 feet of ninja wire, and a raccoon ended that. She still didn't understand how the heck the feathers or tax returns got involved, but she never asked. However, even though his heart was yearning for someone besides her, they were still good friends. She had watched him for years, but after a major change in his demeanor to a more depressed state, she found the courage to talk to him and helped him with his issues and had become close to him a few years back. She had been worried when her father discovered their friendship, but she should have realized her father would not care whom she associated with. He had removed her from her position of clan heiress, and if she had been younger, would have received the curse seal and become an official member of the branch family. But she had been 14, well into puberty when the decision was made, and thus too old to receive the seal. So now she was simply a minor member of the main family, which she actually preferred. She did not have to stress herself to reach her father's extremely high standards, and the clan would have the leader they wanted, someone strong and talented, and not her. She would not have to go onto the inactive roster once her father retired, and she could study pursuits not usually studied by main branch members, like fuinjutsu and medicine. And most importantly to her, Hanabi would never receive the curse seal. It was truly for the best of everyone.

Removing her thoughts from such matters, she went to the dining room were a light breakfast was being served. She saw her sister already sitting down, so she took a seat next to her. She grabbed a few things from the spread on the dining room table and began to eat. Hanabi finished her meal while Hinata was eating, but she did not leave as expected. She instead waited for a pause in her sister's eating and asked her, "So, onee-chan, are you worried about the Genin exam today?"

Hiashi, who also sat at the table, sipping a cup of tea, slightly shifted his eyes onto his eldest daughter, curious of her response.

Hinata didn't recognize this so she easily responded, "No, imouto-chan, I'm not worried at all. I know I can pass this exam with little difficulty." Hinata's stutter had vanished after years of support from Naruto and the lack of stress her role as heiress put on her.

Hanabi smiled for a moment. "Do you think Naruto-kuuun will pass it?" She teased her big sister, knowing of her feelings for the blonde.

Hinata blushed slightly, and took a quick bite of her meal to fight it off. Then she nodded, "Hai, Naruto-kun will pass as well. He can do anything he puts his mind too."

Hanabi smirked at her response, and continued her teasing. "So, do you think you two will be put on the same team? You know, be around each other all the time. Have to go to missions together. Rely on each other for the other's survival? Develop a close bond from working so closely together?" Hanabi finished innocently, but knew the response it would get.

Hinata processed all the information, and began to glow a brilliant red. She buried her head into her chest, trying to hide herself from her evil little sister. Hanabi heard a muffled response of, "I wouldn't mind if that happened", a response that garnered a chuckle from Hanabi as she left the table. "Goodbye, onee-chan. Good day, otou-sama."

Hinata nearly fainted as she came to the realization that her father just saw that scenario play out. Not wishing to see his reaction, she brought her head up, and as quickly as etiquette would allow, ate enough food to last her through the exam and excused herself from the table.

Hiashi watched his eldest daughter leave and sighed. Who knew he had such a manipulative little daughter? Exploiting her sister's crush like that. He just wished she would finally admit her feelings so the inevitable date that would make her realize that it is just a silly crush would happen, and she could focus her attentions to someone more worthy of the daughter of the Hyuga clan head.

…

Sasuke Uchiha rubbed his eyes as he sat on his bed. He took a quick look at the calendar near his desk and smirked. It was the day for the first step of completing his ambition, the day of the Genin exams. He quickly put on his clothes and went to the bathroom to clean himself up for the day, though he was tempted not too. He theorized that, if he was a slob, the fan girls would scatter from him as they wouldn't want to date someone without good hygiene, but somehow he doubted it. With the dedication that they showed hounding him for nearly a decade, a little filth wasn't going to deter them in all likelihood. He could always take Kazumi's advice and take one as a girlfriend, but none of them really appealed to him. None of them were worthy of being by his side when he reached his goal in life. He went down stairs, intent on making a bit of rice and tea for breakfast before the test that day, but was mildly surprised to see a bowl of rice already set out in his spot and tea in a cup. He looked around, and saw the culprit, Kazumi.

He nodded to her, gaining a gentle smile from her. "Hello, Sasuke-kun. How are we feeling this morning?"

Sasuke shrugged as he sat down in his seat. "Good, I guess. I don't honestly see the purpose of me having to do this. They all know I'm going to pass."

She could only shrug her shoulders. "I guess it is to see how you handle pressure."

"Pressure, what pressure?" Sasuke was confused by what she meant as he took a sip from his tea.

"Well, the pressure of taking a test that will determine if you become a ninja or not." She explained, relaxing in her chair. It was obvious she was keeping an eye upstairs.

He waved her off. "Maybe if it was something hard, but I have this in the bag." He looked up from his tea, and saw that Kazumi was distracted. He quickly realized what was causing it. "Worried about Fugaku?"

Kazumi white eyes widened as she realized she had been caught, and she blushed slightly. "Hai. He managed to sleep through the night last night."

Sasuke nodded. "That's good to hear. I know that was a big problem for you."

Kazumi sighed. "Yeah. Of course when Itachi is going to be staying home for the night is when he finally sleeps through the night."

Sasuke frowned. "So he is still becoming a sensei?"

Kazumi rolled her eyes. "Don't worry. You know there are rules against family teaching one another."

He nodded, but the years of her families training recognized that his facial features were saying he didn't believe it. She turned her attention away from him.

"By the way, your rival pulled a little stunt on the Hokage monument."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. He knew exactly who she meant, though he hated how she called him his rival. How could they be rivals when he was so superior in every single way? "What did he do this time?"

She began to count off with her fingers what he done. "Turned the Shodai into Gai, the Nidaime into a drag queen, the Sandaime into a pervert, not much to the Yondaime, and managed to paint himself on the cliff."

He shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Damn dobe. How does he expect to be Hokage when he mocks them like that. We both know I'm going to be the one with his face on that mountain. The one who will show that the Uchiha clan is still a vital member of Konoha!"

Kazumi smiled at her brother-in-law and nodded. "That would be nice, unless Itachi gets appointed first."

Sasuke grunted into his tea. Taking a sip, he spoke. "I doubt Itachi would ever be selected as Hokage."

She simply fixed her hair, readjusting the headband she wore across her forehead. "The Sandaime is quite old, and Itachi is a prodigy and had experience as a leader from back in his ANBU days."

Sasuke didn't say anything, but just finished off his bowl of rice. However, he was thinking to himself that Itachi would never accept it. He knew that he wanted to be the one that proved to the village that the Uchiha's were not a clan full of traitors. It wasn't their fault that the two of the three greatest traitors in Konoha's history happened to be Uchiha's, what did you expect from the greatest clan in Konoha? The bad apples be a bunch of weaklings?

…

"Hokage-sama, have you seen the Hokage monument yet? That brat Uzumaki has ruined it." A shinobi had made his way to the Hokage's office to attempt to be the one to inform the Hokage of the prank Naruto had pulled the night before, but it was for naught. A. He was the fourth shinobi to bring this to his attention and B. It wasn't as if he couldn't look out the window and see it for himself. He had thought suggesting during the peace treaty of the Third Shinobi World War to double the mandatory schooling time of their shinobi would be enough to weed out all the idiots, but it had obviously failed to some extent.

The Sandaime sighed. "I know, Koga-san. I can see this for myself."

The ninja named Koga waited for a moment, and then threw his hands up in the air. "Well? Aren't you going to send people after him or something?"

The Hokage hid behind his hat as he smirked. "If you think Naruto should be brought to justice, why don't you find him yourself?"

Koga blanched. "Isn't that considered an ANBU level job catching that kid? Or at least for a tracker team."

The Hokage scoffed. "The boy isn't even a genin yet. Are you saying that you can't catch a pre-genin, Koga-san?"

Koga paled. "No, Hokage-sama. Umm, I will get on it right away." With that, he quickly left the office, fearing any repercussions if the Hokage had continued that train of thought .

Having a moment alone, the Hokage couldn't help but smirk. He knew he should have been expecting some sort of a big prank out of the Orange Prankster after the talk he had with him. He had made it clear he had to give up his pranking ways once he joined the rank of Konoha shinobi, but he hadn't told him to flat out stop. His mistake.

And, thinking about it, he supposed it was a well thought out prank. It was interesting to say the least. He should have expected the pervert motif on his face, after his habit of reading his student's literature had been discovered by the blonde. The lack of desecration to the Yondaime was not a surprise either, Naruto always respected him, even after finding out everything. And drawing himself on the monument wasn't a big stretch for him either. No, it was the motifs on his sensei and his older brother that gave him thought. He wondered how sensei would have taken being painted as a drag queen. He might take it as a joke, or drown Naruto under a hundred water jutsus. He wasn't really sure. But what he did to the Shodai was cruel, the Sandaime had to admit. Big eyebrows? Bowl haircut? Every shinobi knew exactly what duo that was supposed to express.

"Hokage-sama, Gai with a report!" The doors of his office had been flung open, and the original perpetrator of that fashion style.

The Hokage sighed to himself, disappointed that one of his finest jounin would make the same mistake as four others. "Yes, Gai?"

Gai bowed, and made his way to the front of the desk. "I would like to report that my wonderful student, Rock Lee, is currently undertaking a mission and asked me if I could find out the rank classification of such mission."

The Hokage raised his eyebrows. "What mission, Gai?"

"The mission of catching the most unyouthful Orange Prankster, Naruto Uzumaki, Hokage-sama." Gai loudly responded.

This made the old man smile. A proactive approach to the problem, and a real question. "I am not sure, Gai. It could be classified as a high D-Rank or low C-Rank depending on how you look at it. It is a search and capture mission of a civilian, putting it in D-Rank range, but he has trained in the shinobi arts, which would put it at C-Rank. Then again, he has chunin-level skills in avoiding capture. I think a C-Rank will fit the parameters of this mission nicely."

Gai smiled. "Great! That will be his first solo C-Rank mission, even before his youthful rival Neji-kun."

The Hokage nodded. "Yes, I believe so. Though there are many others who are no doubt trying to find him as well."

Gai frowned for a split second, then shook his head. "No matter! If Lee does not find his unyouthful advisory, then he must perform one thousand push-ups."

The Hokage sweatdropped. "Really, Gai?"

"Your right! Twelve hundred would be more proper! I will tell him now. Good day, Hokage-sama." With that, he fled the room, looking for his precious student. The Sandaime sighed, almost feeling sorry for the boy.

"Hokage-sama, he did it again-"

But more sorry for himself.

…

Shikamaru was bored. Today he would have to do a lot of things, just so he could get a headband that signified he had to do a lot more things. If he didn't fear for his life if he failed because of his mother, he might have just tried to find a nice quiet spot to watch the clouds today. But instead, he was walking with his best buddy Choji, and discussing what their mutual friend had done.

"So, Shikamaru, his best prank or what?"

Shikmaru paused for a moment, causing Choji to stop and wait for him, before he shook his head. A slight smirk adorned his face. "Nah, the best one was with Ino and Gamasekushi."

Choji laughed at the memory of that one. "Oh yeah, that was. It was really mean to do to Ino-chan, but still really funny."

Shikamaru nodded. "I never thought she would give up her stupid crush on Sasuke for anybody, let alone a toad."

Choji nodded. "Or her first kiss." The memory of the hot redheaded fling of Ino's turning back into his toad form mid makeout session was the funniest memory Choji and Shikamaru had. It was one of the things that wasn't too troublesome for Shikamaru to talk about.

"The best part of the prank was that Ino never found out it was his fault. Though I feel sorry for him the second she finds out it was him who summoned the toad." Shikamaru freely admitted. Choji agreed. The vendetta in blood Ino pronounced after the incident had scared Naruto from pranking for three weeks, scared he was doomed to die in her bloody vengeance.

Their conversation was cut short by a weird kid with a bowlcut like the one on the Shodai and a green jumpsuit. "Hello, I have a question for you two. Do either of you know a Naruto Uzumaki? I am on a quest to bring him to justice, despite the power of youth his display has shown."

Shikamaru looked at Choji, who looked back at him, and they nodded in agreement. "Never met the guy in my life." Choji said.

"What a drag. Who is this Naruto that you speak of?" Shikamaru sarcastically asked.

The boy took it as a serious question. "Ah, he had blonde hair, whisker marks, and loves to wear orange. He is roughly our age and is in the shinobi academy. Does that trigger your memory?"

Shikamaru was annoyed at having to answer two questions from this guy, so he took a minute to mock think before shaking his head. "Nope, no clue."

The boy let out a sigh. "Darn. I will not stop, however, I will find this Naruto Uzumaki, or I will do 500 jumping jacks!" The boy quickly vanished from view, leaving the two alone.

Shikamaru let out a sigh, and suddenly turned into the alley the had stopped in front of.

"Uhh, Shikamaru, the academy is this way." Choji wondered what his friend was doing, especially when he kicked the dumpster in said alley.

"Come on, Naruto, you don't want to be late today."

For a second, Choji thought Shikamaru had finally lost it when the dumpster responded. "How did you know I was hear, Shikamaru?"?

Shikamaru let out a grunt. "I did. Now come one so you can change into your outfit in the academy bathroom."

The lid of the dumpster opened, and put jumped Naruto, bag in hand. "Yeah, yeah, I hear you. We still have, " He looked to his watch, "twenty minutes until the class starts."

Shikamaru sighed as he led him out the alley. "We have to get there, you have to change, you will get distracted somehow, we will need everyone of those twenty minutes."

Naruto took lead as the three made his way to the academy. "That isn't true. I won't get distracted."

"Kushina" Choji piped in, knowing the reaction he would get.

"That's different. Kushina-chan is no distraction, she is a puzzle I have almost solved, so she will finally go on a date with me!" He proudly proclaimed.

The other two boys shook their heads. "At least she doesn't beat you like Sakura did before the night of the drunken raccoon and feathers." Choji added, before reaching into his bag to eat his post-breakfast bag of chips.

Naruto got silent, and was so until they reached the academy. Many shinobi felt a disturbance in the force for that time period.

…

Iruka Umino was waiting patiently by the entrance of his classroom, watching the students walk by waiting for a certain one to enter. Normally, he would chase the boy all around Konoha to find and punish him, but he had the upper hand today. He had to come to class today, unless he wanted to waste a shot at becoming a shinobi. So Iruka just sat there and waited.

He watched his students file in slowly, obviously anxious for today's test. They were all hoping they didn't mess up and cost themselves a year of being a ninja. He watched Sakura and Ino march in, looking around for their Sasuke-kun, but finding nothing. They ended up just fighting over the chair next to the spot where he normally sat. Sasuke walked in right behind them, saw what they were doing, and slid his way into the top row seat normally taken by Shino. Shino came in right behind him, and Iruka could sense the displeasure Shino had with Sasuke. Then he noticed what Sakura and Ino were doing, the displeasure seemingly vanished as he came to the understanding of what was going on. He then made his way down, and walked right by the arguing girls and took a seat in Sasuke's seat. They didn't notice.

He watched Hinata shuffle in, taking her usual glance at Naruto's seat, and saw he hadn't arrived. She looked at Iruka, still waiting by the door and asked a simple question. "Please, don't yell at him too much. He probably didn't get much sleep last night."

He listened to her and shrugged. "And who's fault was that?"

Hinata could only nod to the truth behind her sensei's words, and took her aisle seat in the top row of the middle of the class. A few others walked in, followed by Naruto's crush for the last year and a half, Kushina Hagane, no relation to Kotetsu Hagane. Her long red hair barely covered the hilt of her miao dao, and intimidating long sword from her home village. Compared to the commonly used katana, this sword was almost one and a half times the normal size and had less of a curve, which Iruka imagined meant more of a hacking in some cases than a sliced. And he would rather have his arm sliced off over hacked off. She took her seat the row above the bickering girls and Shino and relaxed. Iruka could tell she was glad that she had to take this sort of exam, and not the exams of Kirigakure. Even after the reforms, they were unnecessarily brutal, in Iruka's opinion.

Other students started filling out all the seats, and Sakura and Ino finally realized that Shino was sitting in Sasuke's seat and Sasuke had chosen a seat with all the adjacent seats filled, causing them in defeat to slump into the two chairs next to Shino. A noticeably shorter, but familiar head, walked in, making Iruka confused.

"Uh, Konohamaru?"

The twelve year old looked up at the chunin-sensei that sometimes lectured in his class. "Hai, Iruka-sensei?"

"What are you doing here? You know they are taking their Genin Exams, and Naruto isn't here yet. I still have to get my hands on him first, but by then it will be exam time. Head to Moroko-san's class like where you should be."

Konohamaru looked at Iruka, and suddenly an expression of understanding crossed over his face. "Oh, gramps must not have told you yet." He reached into his pockets, and pulled out a letter. Handing it to Iruka, he explained. "I managed to convince the old man that I was ready to be a shinobi now, so he is letting me take the exams early! In fact, I'm the youngest student to take the exams in over a decade!"

The class had turned his attention to Konohamaru, not believing what they heard. Sasuke was grinding his teeth. He was mad, mad at the Hokage for playing favorites. He had deserved to be able to take the test early, so he could become a shinobi and earn the prestige of being Hokage, but he had made him wait. But for his grandson, who he already let start a year early and advance an extra year, he was going to let him take the test early! Favoritism!

Iruka opened the note and read the letter addressed to him. Quickly understanding what the Hokage was doing, he nodded. "I guess you are Konohamaru. Take a seat, we will be starting a few minutes." With a nod, Konohamaru found the seat next to Hinata open and bounded to it.

"Hey, Hinata-chan!"

Hinata gave a gentle nod, still surprised that the boy was getting to take the tests early. "Hello, Konohamaru-sama. How are you today?"

Konohamaru gave a quick frown. "I thought I said don't call me that."

Hinata tilted her head and gave a small smile. "What do you mean, Konohamaru-sama?"

Konohamaru grunted in annoyance, and glared at her. He knew she was teasing him, so he was going to do some teasing back. "Nevermind. So, how are you and the boss doing? Any babies yet?"

Hinata went into full blush, and Konohamaru gave an evil smile. 'Check and mate' He said to himself.

A minute before the eight o'clock bell, three people walked into the room. The first was the ever lazy Shikamaru, wearing a grey vest over his long sleeve black shirt and long black pants. The second was Choji, in the red version of his family's traditional body armor. Finally, behind the duo, stepped in Naruto, wearing an light orange hoodie with the red spiral on its back along with a pair of black pants, a pair of goggles across his forehead. A pair of goggles whose strap was grabbed by the man waiting by the door that he had failed to see. Naruto quickly turned around, and saw a very angry Iruka-sensei. Before Iruka could say a word, the bell rang. The second it stopped, Naruto spoke. "Well, we are all here! There is not time to lose, so let's take our Genin Exam!"

Iruka grunted, and let Naruto go to his seat, behind Kushina and across the aisle from Hinata. "Fine. But remember Naruto, after this exam, I'm taking you to the Hokage-sama's office."

Naruto waved him off with his hand. "Yeah, yeah, I know Iruka-sensei. Just hurry up and let's take our test!"

A loud "Yeah!" to his call was heard, and he turned to see Konohamaru sitting next to Hinata. He turned back to Iruka-sensei. "What the heck is Konohamaru doing here? Shouldn't he be in class?"

Iruka shook his head. "No, Naruto, he is supposed to be here. The Hokage gave him special permission to take this exam, so get over it." He looked to the class. "So, everyone knows what today is, the day that you try and become Genin for Konoha. This test will be split into four sections, worth 100 points each. These four sections are a written exam, a weapons exam, a taijutsu exam, and a ninjutsu exam. The rules of such will be explained before each exam. A total score of 300, with no single score below a 65, is necessary to pass this exam. Any questions?" No one raised their hand. "Good, now let me pass out the written exam. It is forty multiple choice and twenty fill-in-the-blank. You have forty-five minutes. Begin when I say start." Iruka grabbed the exam from his desk and began to pass them out, ignoring the silent taunting by Konohamaru and non-verbal threats from Naruto. After all 23 tests were passed out, Iruka returned to the front of the class. "You may now begin."

…..

So, here is the first chapter of my newest story, 16 and Shinobi. Well, technically, I posted this before to a lack of views. No clue why. I decided there wasn't a market for the story at the time, and would try later, aka now. I wrote this as my version of the story I like, Life Starts At Sixteen, by Another Reader. Go and read it if you haven't yet.

A few major changes have been made, no doubt the first one you noticed was the lack of an Uchiha massacre. Well, a total massacre. The Uchiha clan is much smaller, and there are good reasons for that, as you will see.

The next is Hinata as heiress. Yes, she has been removed. But she will not get the curse seal, she is too old for it. There has to be a reason you need to be little to get it, so I'm sticking to that logic.

Kushina is not Naruto's mother through time travel or anything, but just an OC with the same first name and hair. A take on the concept of Kushina's last words to her son.

Finally, Konohamaru is indeed taking the test early. I acknowledge that you can take the test early. Examples are Itachi Uchiha, who took the test at ten, which indeed did affect the timeline. However, the standard age is 16. I think it is shown, in the anime and manga, that Konohamaru is a boss and a bit of a genius. He learned from Ebisu along with the academy, is able to solo the Rasengan (unlike Naruto), can use the shadow clone jutsu (without Kyuubi chakra levels) as a genin, and can learn one of the basic three in a day. I would say that he is a genius worthy of taking the test early.

Late Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Please review and tell me what you think.


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